It was a busy Friday evening with Pittston Area and Wyoming Area in the football playoffs, and the scariest night of the year, with Halloween.
Granted, the weather was not as great as it was last year with temperatures in the 70s, but that doesn’t stop the thousands of children in Greater Pittston from trick-or-treating.
Social media was filled with photos of children and adults all dressed in Halloween costumes. As usual, all the schools had dress-up day and even the teachers get involved as well.
It’s probably a great time to be an elementary teacher with the little ones dressing in their best outfit.
I can’t believe how elaborate some of the costumes are, and I’m even more impressed when they are original and homemade.
Going back to my day, you would get your costume from the local department store all packaged in a box with a photo of the outfit on the box cover and clear cellophane showing the mask.
The mask was usually the face of a cartoon character or something ghoulish, and it seemed the elastic band to secure the mask would always break at some point.
We tried not to break ours because our costumes would be passed down from my older brother to me. The actual outfit was a one-piece that you slipped into it from the back and tied it off at the back of your neck.
The outfits had an aroma of some kind of polyester or something like that, and more often than not, we would wear the same costume year after year until they became too tight or the bottom of the pant leg crawled up to somewhere near a calf. That’s when it was passed down for the next year.
The elementary school walk was always special, except when it was cold. We would all be dressed in our costumes and leave the building to walk around the block. Parents, relatives and friends lined the parade route for photos.
It was fun then and it was more fun when my own children participated in the same tradition when it was their time.
I was never satisfied with waiting for them to walk by for a photo, nope; I had to take my photos and race to another destination to head them off for more photos. Yeah, I guess even back then I had some kind of inclination I would be a future photographer.
Of course, dressing up for Halloween is never just for elementary students. Wyoming Area has a tradition of the senior class donning on costumes for one last hurrah.
The last hour or so from classes, the underclasses would go into the hallway and watch the seniors walk by. At the high school level, the costumes are more inventive and original.
When I became a parent, taking the girls out was fun, but it was more fun when we got back to the house, usually we combined all the candy. Of course, you could never be too cautious with what you are getting so someone had to “sample” the candy to make sure it’s safe. That was my job.
The best part of Halloween, everyone is a child and we all enjoy it.
Well, it’s that time of the year for high school playoffs as I mentioned at the beginning of the column. I had a busy week with photography for the paper shooting boys soccer, field hockey, two volleyball games and football. Since I’m not a big fan of the cold, it was nice to get the volleyball job at Wilkes University.
I hope Wyoming Area and Pittston Area can go far in their sports programs, so good luck to all.
On a serious note, when was the last time you were at a dermatologist? Most of you may never have been to one, but I would think twice about that.
The last time I did a dermatology appointment was 2020 and a lot can happen in five-years.
A few weeks ago, I was getting out of my car when I felt my back was sore when I was brushing it against the seat. When I got inside, I check to see what was going on. Everyone has moles of some type and I’m no different.
What was different was three of them had turned from brown to black and that’s not really a good thing. I set up my appointment immediately and I was shocked to see how far out appointments were scheduled with the dermatology department at Geisinger.
I called in the appointment in early Oct. and the scheduler said the soonest appointment was the middle of Nov., which isn’t too bad, but what was startling for me, she said if I didn’t take the appointment, the next available is June of 2026.
Greater Pittston native, Dr. Renee Mathur took great care of me. The moles were nothing serious and she just froze them.
Before I got to my appointment, I could not help but thing of my good friend, Jim Norris, who died from melanoma and you would think I would have been more vigilant and be more proactive, I scheduled for a yearly appointment for 2026.
We take our bodies for granted sometimes and think things only happen to others and not us, well, think again.
Quote of the Week
“There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch.” —Robert Brault
Thought of the Week
“The farther we’ve gotten from the magic and mystery of our past, the more we’ve come to need Halloween.” —Paula Curan
Bumper Sticker
“It’s as much fun to scare as to be scared.” —Vincent Price
